'He became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk': Brett Kavanaugh's former roommate sides with woman who alleges he exposed himself at college party

James Roche, who says he was Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s roommate when the two were at Yale University, said he remembered Kavanaugh “frequently drinking excessively and becoming incoherently drunk.”

Roche said he was inclined to believe Deborah Ramirez, the second woman who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

The New Yorker on Sunday published an article detailing Ramirez’s allegation that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party while they were classmates at Yale in the 1980s.

Roche described Kavanaugh as a “normally reserved” person but a “notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time,” adding that “he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk.”

A man who says he was Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s roommate when the two were students at Yale University said in a statement on Monday that he remembered Kavanaugh “frequently drinking excessively and becoming incoherently drunk.”

James Roche said he was inclined to believe Deborah Ramirez, a fellow classmate at Yale who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

A New Yorker report by the investigative journalists Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer published Sunday detailed Ramirez’s allegation that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a dorm-room party during the 1983-84 school year, when he was a freshman, as onlookers watched.

“I was embarrassed and ashamed and humiliated,” Ramirez told The New Yorker. She recalled that “Brett was laughing.”

Roche, who said he lived in a two-bedroom unit with Kavanaugh in 1983, described Ramirez as “being exceptionally honest, with a trusting manner.” He adding that though he did not witness the alleged incident, he thought Kavanaugh was capable of behaving that way.

“Based on my time with Debbie, I believe her to be unusually honest and straightforward and I cannot imagine her making this up,” Roche said in the statement. “Based on my time with Brett, I believe that he and his social circle were capable of the actions that Debbie described.”

Roche, who said he was “close friends” with Ramirez and did not interact with Kavanaugh “beyond the first few days of freshman year,” described Kavanaugh as a “normally reserved” person but a “notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time,” adding that “he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk.”

“We talked at night as freshman roommates do and I would see him as he returned from nights out with his friends,” Roche said.

Kavanaugh has denied Ramirez’s allegation, calling it a “smear, plain and simple.”

He has also denied an allegation of sexual assault from Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist and professor who has said that a “stumbling drunk” Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and groped her at a house party when the two were in high school in the 1980s.

“Yes, there were parties, and the drinking age was 18,” Kavanaugh said during an interview with the Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Monday night. “And yes, the seniors were legal and had beer there. And yes, people might have had too many beers on occasion. And people generally in high school – I think all of us have probably done things we look back on in high school and regret or cringe a bit.